Electronics and Injection Molding Photos and Update

First I want to apologize for the delay in this update - I expected to post it from the road last week but did not have the connectivity I expected and as you will see, I have many photos to share this update.

Electronics and plastic parts

Electronics

We continue to test the electronics, but we do now have the final electronics and I want to share some pictures of them - these are factory made using the final settings, parts, etc.

Mainboard

Enclosure LEDs

Display and control

Head unit controller

Scanner Controller

Heatbed Issue Fixed

As you can see in the photo of it below - the heatbed warping issue mentioned in the last update has been fixed. The factory suggestion of using a thinner circuit board worked well.

Injection Molding

Due to both personal obligations this the last two weeks as well as other obligations required to keep the rest of the project moving forward, we haven't made as much headway on the last plastic part as we had hoped - in the next week this will be my sole focus - the last part is the head unit, an essential part no doubt. Our next update will be all about that, and moving forward once that is done.

Leonid and his helpers and their awesome injection molding design skills have provided prototype parts of the rest of the parts - here are some photos of them. We are testing these now before OKing the final mold creation.

Final Request For Help

Several injection molding experts contacted us in our initial request for help - and if you were one of those people, or are an injection molding designer that wants to help and would be willing to put some time into helping us with the final piece - the head unit redesign and have time available in the next week to do so - please reach out to us! Via Kickstarter or at support@digistump.com

Our next update will be all about the head unit and the next steps into production!

Comments

I remember when I thought this would arrive before my son was to be born. I was excited to have time to explore and learn about 3-d printing before things got really busy. He's over a year old now, and I just don't care anymore. I'm a patient and understanding person when it comes to delays and unexpected issues, but this is beginning to... well, no need to finish that sentence. Predictions: another soon to be update, randomly timed, asking for help figuring out how to produce yet another failed part; Another soon to be update randomly timed, asking for understanding about how you have run out of money; Another soon to be update randomly timed from Kickstart telling us that we are eligible for a partial refund, but sorry, you should have known better so you're out of luck. This isn't hating, this is admonishing. After a year of delays, and not being able to live up to your own stated promise of regular progress updates, you should begin to expect this type of feedback.

@Sergui. It looked from creators update from a month ago, that moulding it as one part was tricky, and therefore the cause of most recent delays (at least that is my suspicion). So moulding it as two parts is likely to save time in design re-iteration and therefore get us our printers sooner. I was trying to show in my post that there are other reasons why 2part piece might be superior anyway. Only Erik will know if my suspicion is correct about the design of carriage as a single part is holding us up.... and therefore if arguments in favour of a 2 part cartiage and funnel/nozzle will speed things up or not.

@erik I think BobC's previous comments are perceptive. Ideally from a flexibility and future tweaking perspective, the fan funnel and nozzle woild be a bolt-on / clip-on /ziptie-on part, such that redesiging the nozzle is something that doesn't necessitate remaking a whole new carriage. It also means that if people don't need the cooling fan, they can free up the space (say for a dremmel spindle via flexible shaft). The more modular the design of the carriage is, the more useful the part is. Obviously you are balancing this against competing demands of simplicity in manufacture and assembly. However, as I understand it, keeping the nozzle into the design as a single part, is also a major headache in the design of a mould, so could cause added expense in its own right. The only area that is better if the carriage is a single part would be simplicity of assembly. However a clip together 2-part carriage or a ziptie together part, would be still very quick to pop together, but would keep the possiblity of removal of the nozzle in the future as an opton, as well as simplifying your mould design considerably, albeit at the expense of needing two mould for the part. I think the final carriage design would gain heaps of flexibility from this route though too, so I hope you consider this as an option.

Great to see photos of the finished components, all are looking very professional, a big thanks to all in the team, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I hope you can see that too, keep up the good work.

Appreciate the update Erik. At this point I would think this has become a 'labor of love'. :) I'm hanging in there with you on this project, because I really like to support the vision of others and seeing a project through to completion. At the original price points though, it's hard to compete with what's on the market today, especially products coming out Southeast Asia.

Please ensure the laser mount is maker-friendly: There's lots of stuff I'm planning to put there! (Second hotend, flex-drive for a PCB mill, knife for a vinyl cutter, maybe more. Oh, and the laser, of course.)

Also consider using threaded inserts (hot press-in or captive nuts) where it will help. In some cases, using long screws through a part makes them like clamps, which can cause the part to deform in use (and ruin the alignment of things like linear bearings/bushings). Only actual clamps should be permitted to deform! And even then, what they are clamping should be an interference fit to avoid excessive deformation.

As for the molds, my experience is that they *never* go as planned. With this number of parts, and the work remaining on the head unit, I suspect it will be at least a month before all the molds are ready. I'd plan for 2 months before seeing good parts from all molds.

I'm assuming there's no plan/need for fiber-filled plastic or exotic plastics: That can add a whole 'nother level of complications. Keep this simple, strong, and overbuilt. This is not the time to try to optimize, minimize or economize the amount of plastic used. These parts need to last.

After the molds are yielding acceptable parts, then comes PVT, and assuming that goes flawlessly, right into initial low-rate production, without delay. Assuming the first 100 printers come out OK (none should leave the factory before then), I would expect the first US backers *MAY* be printing on their B1s no sooner than about 3 months from now (mid-December), with the rest of us early next year.

The real race is to get the full production run done and out of China before another CNY. It can all be done, but only if no other plastic or mechanical re-designs or PCB re-spins are needed, and the next head unit design is also the last.

This is looking good but it is increasingly frustrating that all of these other printers are out there making great things and we are still on the sidelines. I’m still super excited it seems like this will ship at some point so kiddos for not giving up.

5th is Extruder 2 for those that ordered it
Polyfuses have worked well for us and are on most every 3d printer board I've used - certainly can be an issue with home made machines drawing too much, but hackers can always cut the leads and solder them together at the loss of fuse protection

What is the 5th stepper driver for? 2 for x/y, 1 for z, 1 for the extruder and? Also the polyfuse on the main board is an interesting choice. The ramps board that have these often have issues with them.